Students at the UCSD hold a rally outside the Price Center after walking out of the university sponsored teach-in after last year's racist-tinged off-campus event.
— Howard Lipin / The San Diego Union-Tribune

UCSD student, Jasmine Herrera, along with others, hold their own teach-in after walking out of the UCSD sponsored teach-in at the Price Center to address race related issues at the school.
— Howard Lipin / The San Diego Union-Tribune

UCSD students and faculity listen during university sponsored teach-in to address race related issues at the school before a majority of the students walked out.
— Howard Lipin / The San Diego Union-Tribune

UCSD student Jennifer Maldonado marches in a roving rally at university protesting what the students feel is the lack of action by the university to improve the racial climate at the school.
— Howard Lipin / The San Diego Union-Tribune

UCSD students rally support before the university sponsored teach-in to address racial problems at the school. Later they walked out, protesting the lack of action by the university.
— Howard Lipin / The San Diego Union-Tribune

Shaun Travers, UCSD campus diversity officer, addresses a university sponsored teach-in. Part way through the tech-in students upset with the way racial issues are being handled, walked out.
— Howard Lipin / The San Diego Union-Tribune

UCSD student Jenny Romero uses a bullhorn during an roving rally at university protesting what the students feel is the lack of action by the university to improve the racial climate at the school.
— Howard Lipin / The San Diego Union-Tribune

UCSD students, Leslie Quintailla and Jenny Romero during a roving rally at university protesting what the students feel is the lack of action by the university to improve the racial climate at the school.
— Howard Lipin / The San Diego Union-Tribune

From a walkway above, students at UCSD watch a rally outside the Price Center after students and their supporters walked out of the university sponsored campus-wide teach-in.
— Howard Lipin / The San Diego Union-Tribune

Several hundred University of California San Diego students and supporters staged a roving protest in the heart of campus yesterday, taking administrators to task for not doing more to improve the school’s racial climate.

Stung by a pair of racially charged incidents, the students stormed out of an administration-organized teach-in aimed at addressing the thorny issue, saying that Chancellor Marye Anne Fox is the one who needs schooling.

“A teach-in is not what is needed right now,” student Fnann Keflezighi told the crowd. “Real action is needed.”

Fox sat in the front row of the teach-in. Her head was tilted slightly downward most of the time, and she appeared to be jotting notes.

Campus officials said about 2,000 people attended the Price Center forum, which featured academics discussing institutional racism and how to combat it.

The protest rally, organized by the Black Student Union, began at 10 a.m. and extended into the afternoon, breaking halfway so students could march to the noon teach-in. Students and faculty from San Diego State University, UC Los Angeles, the University of Southern California and other campuses participated as a show of solidarity.

The turmoil was sparked by an off-campus party last week that mocked Black History Month and by a subsequent show on a student-run TV station that supported the party and called blacks ungrateful, using a racial slur.

The fact that the party was billed as the “Compton Cookout” has added to the sense of injury among many students, who feel that it degraded blacks and other minorities who worked hard to earn a spot on the UC campus.

“This attack was an attack on all students of color on this campus,” said Mar Velez, a member of MEChA de UCSD, a Latino student group.

Velez and others said the events underscored the long-standing hostility and isolation many disadvantaged minorities, including Latinos, gays and lesbians, feel on the seaside campus.

Many protesters wore T-shirts that read, “REAL PAIN, REAL ACTION, 1.3%.” The figure represents the percentage of African-American undergraduates at UCSD, compared with 44 percent for Asians and 26 percent for whites.

In recent days, Fox and her staff have condemned the racist episodes repeatedly and pledged to redouble efforts to boost enrollment and retention of disadvantaged minorities.

Fox launched an investigation into the party, boosted funding for minority-enrollment initiatives and promised to create a commission to consider what more can be done.

“We cannot prevent the kind of deplorable events that have happened — and may happen again — but we can ensure that our students feel supported and respected so that they can succeed,” Fox said in a statement released yesterday.

She did not speak at the teach-in and left after hundreds of protesters walked out, about an hour into the two-hour event.

The teach-in’s message was that students — particularly white students — need to be educated about their privileges and the challenges of disadvantaged minorities.

Among those attending was state Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, whose district includes UCSD.